Love Calling

by Janet Lee Barton

  “No, neither do I.” They walked in silence for a while. It was a comfortable silence, and Sam realized that Emma had a way of comforting him that she wasn’t even aware of. He thought that Ann would have liked her a lot. He was sure that had they ever met, they would have been good friends.

  As they neared Mrs. Holloway’s Sam slowed his steps and Emma slowed hers. “Is something wrong, Sam?”

  He shook his head. “No. I was just wondering if you think Mrs. Holloway would mind if I invited myself to dinner tonight? I’d like to talk over tomorrow with you and see if anyone has any news on the job situation for our young people.”

  Emma giggled. “Sam, they aren’t all that much younger than we are. At least not than I am.”

  “I know. But I don’t exactly know what to call them. Calling them children isn’t right. And—”

  “How about we call them our friends?”

  He smiled. He should have known Emma would have the answer. “I like that just fine.”

  “Good. And I’m certain that Mrs. Holloway would be more than glad to have you stay for dinner. We’ve all been wondering where you were. Is there a way we can contact you if need be?”

  The concern in her eyes washed over him, filling him with warmth at the knowledge that she and the others cared about him—and worried, too, if the expression in her eyes was what he thought it was.

  “I’m sorry, Emma. Of course there is. I can give you the phone number of my landlady and the police department. I should have thought of it before now.”

  Her eyes sparkled once more, and Sam was glad.

  “It’s all right. As long as you give them to us before you leave tonight, all will be forgiven.”

  “I promise you, as soon as I have a piece of paper to write the numbers down on, you’ll have them.”

  “And I will keep you to that promise,” Emma said.

  They’d arrived at Mrs. Holloway’s and hurried up the steps just as Jones opened the front door.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Emma, Mr. Tucker.”

  “Good afternoon, Jones,” Sam said. It felt good to be welcomed into this house. He’d never thought he could feel as comfortable as he did here, but from the very first time he walked through Mrs. Holloway’s door, he’d felt at ease.

  And the greeting he received as he followed Emma to the parlor warmed his heart.

  “Sam!” Grace’s smile alone told him she was glad to see him. “I’ve been wondering when you were coming by again.”

  “It’s always good to see you, Sam. Will you be able to take dinner with us?” Mrs. Holloway asked.

  “I’d love to if you are sure you have enough.”

  “We always have enough for you, Sam,” Mrs. Holloway said.

  “I told you so,” Emma whispered as they crossed the room.

  She took the cup of tea Mrs. Holloway handed her.

  “This one is for Sam, Emma dear.” She poured another cup. “And this one is for you.”

  “Looks like you are still planning the wedding,” Sam said as he spied the invitation samples laid out here and there over the tables.

  “We are. You should have seen us earlier in the week when Esther was choosing patterns for her trousseau. We had fabric and patterns all over the place,” Grace said.

  “I suppose we should be doing this in the back parlor instead of here,” Mrs. Holloway said. “But the light is better in this parlor during the day.”

  “And at least we got all the fabric swatches and patterns upstairs to Mrs. Coble’s room,” Emma said. “I do love my gown though. I can’t wait for fittings to start.”

  “Mrs. Coble?”

  “Yes, she’s our seamstress,” Mrs. Holloway said. “You’ll meet her at dinner. She’s busy cutting out Esther’s wedding gown today. We finally decided on the fabric yesterday.”

  “She’s staying here?” Sam asked.

  “She is. She keeps on the go. Once she leaves here, she’ll take her sewing machine to another home and make whatever it is they are in need of, then on to another. When her husband passed away, she lost her home, and this is the way she makes her living. And it provides her with meals and a nice roof over her head.”

  “I would imagine it would take someone who liked change in their life to be able to move around like that.”

  “Yes. I imagine she’ll buy a home one day; but for now, she says this keeps her from being too lonely.”

  “I can certainly understand that reasoning,” Sam said. He looked forward to meeting Mrs. Coble.

  “And she does an excellent job. I’m sure she’ll never lack for a place to stay.”

  Esther and Andrew came in just then and greeted him as if he were one of the family. Sam was beginning to wish he were.

  ❧

  Emma realized that the contentment she felt was because Sam was here. She didn’t have to worry where he was or if he was safe at this moment, and she thanked the Lord for the peace that settled over her. She was also reminded of Sam’s promise.

  She hurried over to Mrs. Holloway’s secretary and pulled a tablet out of the drawer along with a pencil and handed them to Sam. “You said you’d give us telephone numbers in case we need to contact you.”

  “Yes, I did.” He smiled and took the tablet and pencil, quickly writing down several numbers before handing them back to her.

  “Thank you,” Emma said.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “I’m so glad Emma thought of that,” Mrs. Holloway said. “There’ve been several times lately when I wanted to ask you to dinner and see how you are doing, but I wasn’t sure how to get in touch with you.”

  “Now we do,” Grace said, grabbing the tablet out of Emma’s hand. “I’ll make copies of it, so we all have one. You never know when you might need a good cop,” she said.

  “Do you have our number, Sam?” Mrs. Holloway asked.

  “No ma’am, but I would like it, if you don’t mind giving it to me.”

  “Grace, since you’ve commandeered the writing material, write our number down and give it to Sam, please,” the older woman said.

  “A lot of my customers just ask for the person, and after a while we know what line to connect, but we don’t always know the number of the person they want to talk to,” Emma said. “Mrs. Holloway might be known because this is her telephone number. But it’d be doubtful that another operator would know to connect to this line if you asked for me, or anyone else living here. So it’s always best to have the telephone number if possible.”

  “How would one get in touch with Mrs. Coble, then, if she’s always at a different house?” Sam asked.

  “She keeps a schedule fairly far out and mails it to her clients,” Mrs. Holloway said.

  “That’s right. I’ve found it works for me. And if the people I’m working with don’t have a telephone, my clients can contact me through the mail. I use a post office box.” Mrs. Coble entered the room with a smile. “Hard as it is to believe for those who have them, there really are a lot more people out there without telephones in their homes.”

  “Mrs. Coble, this is Sam Tucker. He’s a good friend of ours. Sam, this is one of the best seamstresses I’ve ever known.” Mrs. Holloway made the introductions.

  “Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Coble,” Sam said. She was a slightly built woman who looked to be in her midforties to Sam.

  “I’m pleased to meet you, too, Mr. Tucker. I’m enjoying getting to know Mrs. Holloway’s new family a great deal. I can see how they have enriched her life. There is never a dull moment around here.”

  “I wouldn’t think so with these three young ladies around,” Sam said. “They always have been full of life.”

  “And I’m blessed to have them with me,” Mrs. Holloway said. “But I’m sure they’ve been missed a great deal since they all left the orphanage.”

  “No doubt about that. And I’m very glad that we are staying in contact with the others now,” Sam said. “I know I felt bad that I waited so long to go back. At least Emma, Gr
ace, and Esther have been much better at that than I was.”

  “But you’ve remedied that, Sam,” Emma said. “If not for your ideas, we probably would have never thought of the kind of help you’ve come up with.”

  “Dinner is served, ma’am,” Jones said from the doorway.

  “May I?” Sam asked as he crooked his arm to escort Mrs. Coble to the dining room.

  “Why, thank you, Mr. Tucker. It’s been awhile since a handsome young man has escorted me to dinner.” She took his arm and let him lead her to the dining room.

  Emma laughed at the look on Grace’s face as they followed Sam and Mrs. Coble into the room. “You know we don’t own Sam, Grace,” she whispered to her sister. “And did you see the look on Mrs. Coble’s face? Sam did a very sweet thing just now.”

  “I suppose,” Grace said, but Emma could see that she was as pleased with his treatment of Mrs. Coble as Emma was. Perhaps his heart went out to Mrs. Coble because he knew what it was to lose a mate. Emma couldn’t even imagine, but she knew it must be devastating. And life would have to be lonelier after sharing it with another than if one had never married.

  Sam had seated Mrs. Coble by the time Emma got to her chair, but he was waiting for her so that he could seat her also. Mrs. Robertson had made sure the children under her care knew how to be mannerly, and she’d be proud of Sam now.

  More and more, Emma was beginning to believe that if anyone could be the kind of policeman this city needed, it would be Sam. Only now, as she’d barely begun to trust him, she worried more about him also and was afraid she was beginning to care more for him than she should. Even if he was the best policeman in New York City, he’d been in love with his wife and still missed her from what she could see. Could he—would he ever love another woman the same way?

  Emma wanted to be loved with all of someone’s heart—after the Lord of course. But she didn’t want to come in behind a first wife. She needed to be careful of her heart, for it softened each time Sam smiled at her and she was afraid he was working his way right into it.

  “How has your week been?” Sam asked, breaking into her thoughts.

  “It’s passed fine, except I did have something strange happen the other day.”

  “Oh?” Sam took a piece of chicken from the platter he’d been passed, held it for Emma to choose one for herself, and then turned to do the same for Grace. Jones took it from there and served Mrs. Coble.

  “What happened?” Sam prodded.

  “I’d just come back from lunch, and I accidentally pulled the wrong plug and disconnected a call in progress. And one of the callers continued to talk and. . .what he said was a little disconcerting.”

  “Why? What did he have to say?” Sam asked.

  “He was talking to someone called Joe and said something like, ‘tell the others.’ ”

  “Tell them what?”

  “About a meeting somewhere and that they would stop it. Then he evidently realized Joe wasn’t there and he called his name. That’s when I told him the call had been disconnected and asked if he wanted me to reconnect.”

  Emma saw Sam and Andrew exchange looks, and then Sam asked, “Do you by any chance remember the number or know who was calling?”

  Emma closed her eyes and thought. “I believe it was something like 2833, or maybe it was. . .2338. I’m sorry, I can’t remember for sure.”

  “It’s all right. I’m just very curious to know what kind of meeting they wanted to stop,” Sam said.

  “I’d like to know, too,” Andrew said. “Sounds like they want to make trouble for someone.”

  “Maybe I should have told my supervisor, but we aren’t supposed to listen in on conversations. Still, it happens from time to time, and in an. . . Oh, I wish—”

  “Emma, it’s all right. But if something happens like that again, maybe you could tell me, if you don’t want to go to your supervisor?”

  Emma wasn’t sure what she should do. And yet, she didn’t want to let anyone get away with a crime of some sort. “I’ll tell one of you if I hear anything like that again.”

  Sam nodded. “Good. I don’t want you to get in trouble at work, but you’d be surprised how many crimes are stopped by someone overhearing something.”

  “When we were little we were told not to be tattletales,” Grace said. “I know it’s important to tell certain things, but sometimes it’s still hard to know when it’s the right choice.”

  “Not necessarily as difficult as it seems, Grace,” Sam said. “Not when it comes to a real crime about to happen. That’s not quite the same as trying to get another child or sibling in trouble.”

  “That was earlier in the week,” Emma said. “Have there been any reports of trouble at any meetings?”

  “There are meetings of all kinds in this city. And trouble at some of them on a weekly basis. There’d be no real way of knowing which one might be a target on any given day, unless we know for sure when and where.”

  Emma felt disappointed in herself for not letting someone know what she’d heard sooner, but she didn’t know how to fix it now. She stewed about it the rest of the night while they discussed their plans for meeting with the young people at the orphanage the next evening, and it was still in the back of her mind when Sam decided it was time to leave.

  She walked him outside as usual, and when he turned to her, she found she hadn’t hidden her feelings from him.

  “You’re still worried about what you overheard, aren’t you?”

  Emma nodded and sighed. “Oh Sam. I hope the fact that I didn’t say anything didn’t allow anyone to be hurt.”

  “Emma, even if you had said something, we might not have been able to stop anything. But if you hear something that worries you at all, be sure to let me or your supervisor know. Whomever you feel you should tell.”

  Emma nodded and prayed that she’d never overhear that kind of conversation again. “But will you try to find out what you can about any meetings being disrupted?”

  “I will.” He tipped her chin up so that she looked him in the eyes. “I promise. Try not to worry. You didn’t know what to do or even what it was all about.”

  Emma released a sigh. “Thank you, Sam.”

  The fingers that had lifted her chin slid up to cup her jaw as he bent and kissed her on the cheek. “You’re a good woman, Emma Chapman. I’m glad I’m getting to know you all grown up.”

  “I—” Emma stopped, her pulse racing and her heart pounding in her ears. She didn’t know what to say.

  Sam tapped her chin, turned, and started down the steps. “I’ll pick you up at six tomorrow evening.”

  Emma found herself nodding even though he couldn’t see her.

  He turned back. “Is that time all right?”

  She cleared her throat. “Yes, six is fine.”

  “Good.” He smiled. “I’ll see you then. You’d best go back in before Mrs. Holloway sends Jones to find you.”

  “Yes, I’d better. Good night, Sam.”

  “ ’Night, Emma.”

  She turned and slipped back inside, glad that Jones was nowhere around. She placed her hand on her heart, willing it to slow its rapid beating. Sam had kissed her as he would have Grace—that’s all. So why was her heart acting as if she’d just received her first kiss from someone she cared deeply about?

  Perhaps because I just did? The thought had her pushing away from the door and hurrying back to the parlor as fast as she could go.

  twelve

  When Sam picked her up the next evening he acted as if nothing unusual had happened the night before, and Emma was surprised at how disappointed she was that he seemed the same as always. She didn’t know what she expected or even how she wanted him to act, but whatever it was, he acted no differently than any other time they’d been together.

  And it left her more confused than ever. She had been determined not to let herself have romantic feelings for him; and yet, last night she’d wished he’d take her in his arms and really kiss her. Not as he would Gra
ce but as the woman he’d said she was.

  Now, as they walked down the street to catch the trolley that would take them to the orphanage, she tried to hide her poor mood.

  But Sam read her well. “You seem to be a bit out of sorts. Did you have a bad day?”

  His concern touched her, and she shook her head. Obviously she wasn’t doing a very good job of concealing her rotten mood. “No, not really.”

  “No?” He smiled at her in a way that seemed to ask a question.

  “No.” And she hadn’t had a bad day. At least when she hadn’t been thinking about Sam and wondering if he had any feelings for her beyond pure friendship. She was just aggravated with herself for letting her guard down and allowing her feelings for this man to begin to grow.

  The trolley came to a stop just as they reached the corner, and Sam put a hand to her elbow to help her in. Then he moved over to allow her the window seat and sat down beside her.

  “After we meet with the boys and girls—”

  “Young men and women, or our friends,” Emma corrected. “They aren’t thinking of themselves as children right now.”

  “No, of course they aren’t. Anyway, once we meet with them separately, perhaps we can join each other as one group for a bit and share any news they might have. Of course they’ve probably already shared that with each other.”

  “Not necessarily. If one got a job and the others didn’t, they might keep the good news to themselves in order not to make the others feel bad. It wasn’t easy for me to let them know I was moving in with Mrs. Holloway.”

  “Why do I always think you are older than the others?” Sam asked.

  Emma’s heart warmed at the thought that he did. At least he didn’t seem to be thinking that she was too young.

  “I don’t know. Perhaps because I was already out and working when you found us again?”

  “Perhaps. Or maybe—you looked quite natural holding the baby the last time we were at the orphanage.”

  “Oh, the new baby.” Emma smiled just thinking about her. “Mandy is her name. Isn’t she precious with those big blue eyes and curly hair? I’ve always had a weakness for the little ones at the orphanage. They’ll never even remember their parents. It makes me so sad for them.”